News + Trends

Xbox is now the largest games publisher in the world - highest revenue on Playstation

30-1-2025

Translation: machine translated

Microsoft's aggressive expansion policy in the gaming sector and the radical change in strategy for exclusive games are paying off. Xbox Game Studios was the largest games publisher in the world last month.

In December 2024, Microsoft generated around 465 million dollars in revenue with its games on consoles and PC. This was reported by "VGC" on the basis of data from the analytics company Ampere.

This means that Microsoft, or rather Xbox Game Studios, was by far the most successful games publisher worldwide for the first time last month. Activison's "Call of Duty: Black Ops 6" and Machine Games' "Indiana Jones and the Great Circle" in particular contributed to the record sales. In comparison: Electronic Arts is in second place with a turnover of around 366 million dollars - mainly thanks to "EA Sports FC 25".

A particularly explosive fact: Microsoft generated 64 per cent of its turnover not on its own platforms, but on the competitor platform Playstation.

Aggressive expansion policy and new multiplatform strategy

The record sales figures are mainly due to two strategic changes that Microsoft has made in recent years.

The Redmond-based company has acquired a large number of developer studios and publishers since 2018, significantly expanding its games portfolio. In particular, the billion-euro takeovers of ZeniMax/Bethesda (including: "The Elder Scrolls", "Starfield", "Doom", "Indiana Jones") as well as Activision Blizzard King (including: "Call of Duty", "World of Warcraft") caused quite a stir.

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With the growing number of studios, Microsoft increasingly moved away from the traditional console business model. Instead of exclusive games for its own Xbox console, there are more and more multiplatform titles for other platforms.

Both newly acquired game series such as "Call of Duty", "Indiana Jones" and "Doom" as well as formerly exclusive Xbox game series are increasingly being released on third-party platforms. The ex-Xbox games "Hi-Fi Rush", "Pentiment", "Sea of Thieves" and "Grounded" made the start in 2024.

The Switch 2 will also get Xbox games

While Microsoft initially communicated the new multiplatform strategy hesitantly so as not to upset its fans, the company is now going all out. Back in November, Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, announced in an interview with "Bloomberg": "I don't see any red lines in our portfolio that say: 'We can't touch this game'."

In a new interview with "Bloomberg".

In a new series of interviews with various content creators in January, Spencer doubles down and also talks about the Switch 2: "I want people to experience our games on as many devices as possible. [...] Not just on Playstation. We love the employees that we do with Nintendo. I'm really looking forward to supporting [Nintendo] with the games we have".

Industry insider and trusted leaker "Nate the Hate" knows of two prestigious Xbox games set to make the jump to the Switch 2 - and the Playstation 5 - this year: "Halo: The Master Chief Collection" and "Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024".

Will Microsoft become a third-party publisher?

Despite its profitable multiplatform strategy, the company does not want to withdraw from the hardware console market for the time being and become a pure third-party publisher.

Last year, Xbox hardware boss Sarah Bond announced that Microsoft's next-gen plans are in full swing. The next Xbox console is said to be "the biggest technical leap" ever between two generations of hardware.

According to Spencer, the next console will no longer be defined and differentiated from the competition by exclusive games, but by unique hardware features: "I want us to innovate and make the hardware the differentiator. Until now, exclusive games have defined the identity of the hardware. [...] I want our [new] hardware to be competitive through performance and innovation [...] - whether thanks to controllers, power or mobility".